What exactly makes the seals any more special than the cows, sheep, lambs, chickens etc. that are slaughtered in the EU every year? It can't be the method of slaughter, because abatoirs are horrible places.

Well there are fierce protest against things like unsedated castration and road transports too, it's certainly not the only topic on the agenda.

Hypocritical political grandstanding by those in favor of this. They might as well ban all fish, because when harvested most of them die from crushing and suffocation.
This whole notion about skinning them alive is bogus. Id like see someone try and skin a live seal. Because they would get hurt in the process themselves. Either bitten, or bashed by the thrashing body.

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Abstinence Education at its finest: